An Ektachrome Christmas 8

Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Well, it's time for another edition of everyone's favorite holiday special that usually comes out in January. Ectochrome Christmas. I am once again buried in production work, behind schedule, and my office is a total mess. Not much ever really seems to change around here. Well, we're back for our eighth year doing this dumb sh**, even though I've personally tried to cancel the series like 12 times. You may have even noticed that this video isn't three hours long like the last one, but don't worry, it'll still be a chore to get through. In fact, this holiday season would be a bit more home-based. I wouldn't be jetting off somewhere exotic like Spain or Germany or Cleveland, which I think is kind of a good thing. This time of year isn't really about spending time in airport terminals. It's about spending time with loved ones, even if they're gassy and only interested in being your friend as long as the food keeps flowing. Why do I do this to myself? Shoot a notoriously difficult film stock over my winter break one. I should be relaxing. Wouldn't it just be easier to wander into the forest and disappear, only ever to be seen again years later on a random security camera in Guadalajara? I don't know anymore. But what I do know is that it culminated in one of the best 8x10 photos I've probably ever taken. But let's not jump ahead. Let's smash cut to me and my pied-à-terre. Emphasis on P because that's what it smells like. I was in the middle of some serious work for the channel that I absolutely could not be pulled away from. Yes, come on. I had to finish editing three videos and then film another three videos so that I could hit the ground running in 2026. Now it was all stacking up pretty fast. One of those videos would be a video about the Lomo MCA, a brand new 35mm film camera that just arrived in the mail. Receiving early access loaners is one of the perks of the job for sure. Just got the Lomo MCA delivered. Looks very cool. Ignore the rat's nest of wires over there. And over there. And I also got some films. Let's see. Oh, sh**. Lomo 800 and some Lomo 400. What is this box underneath, you might be asking. It's actually some prints, custom prints I ordered that I'm going to sign for a friend of mine. It's art. It's so beautiful. To Frank. Much love. This is why it's kind of hard to be a lefty. From a guy who spent way too long on this thing. Update. There isn't really much to say. Shot the Lomo MCA video yesterday. I hope the photos turn out because I think I got a lot of good stuff. It's an interesting camera. Dropped three rolls of C41 off at LA Film Lab. Some Aurora 800 that Monica shot in a half frame camera. I think at Halloween it's just been sitting on my desk. I got Monica a few things for Christmas. I found this Stardew Valley board game that I'm honestly kind of surprised that we don't already own because Monica loves board games and she's probably put like a thousand hours into Stardew Valley so it's kind of a win-win. I think she'll like it. I also got her a salmon mask. I will shoot something eventually, I promise. Things are just super busy right now. I was thinking 8x10. I have some 8x10 rare Ektachrome. Actually I need to test it out and then I can shoot it. That might be about it. I'll check in with you in a few days if anything changes. But you're probably not missing much. Just me at a computer. Editing. Wanting to die. Anyway it was that magical time of the year after all so eventually Monica and I began getting into the Christmas spirit with a few Christmas spirits of our own as that always makes putting up decorations a bit more flammable. As per usual we received no help from Baxter, our lazy ass kibble obsessed dog who hates the holidays for some reason I can't possibly fathom. He looks so uncomfortable, oh my god. Kind of looks like Dobby the house elf. You want a treat bud? Taylor Swift dropped a new documentary? How does she have time to do all this sh**? I actually hadn't put up decorations around the apartment in two or so years as we'd been traveling in December quite a bit in the recent years so it was a bit of a welcome refresher to find out nothing worked anymore. What is that? It's like a cape. Did one of us get a cape? Did you get a cape? Anyway as you'd expect from two years of dormancy pulling the decorations out of cryo sleep was no easy task. Okay so the Christmas lights don't work. They've been in storage for three years and they don't turn on. So we need to get new ones. Can't put ornaments on the tree until we get new ones. Is this yours? Yeah that's me I think as a baby. That's you as a baby? Pretty sure, let me see. Yikes. I mean you were a cute baby. Since the decorations weren't going to be finished that night I got to work digitizing some film until the break of dawn arrived and I decided I needed to do what must be done. No, not kill myself. But you know what? I feel like you probably don't believe me. I am going to shoot film. I'll show you. There it is. Oh my god. This is what I'm going to be shooting in 8x10. It's electronic output Kodak Ektachrome. I don't know all about it. There's 44 sheets in here. So that's not going to happen. This was opened March 31st of 1999. It's fired in February 01. Do you see this sh**? My freezer's like frozen over again. It's like the ice planet hop in there. It doesn't make any sense. You know what? I need a bag. When I first started Ektachrome Christmas all those years ago my film stash was contained to just a small lunch box in the fridge. Now it's completely out of control with two freezers full of f****** nose blood. Uh Christmas decorations round two. We have lights. Monica went to Lowe's today. I've got low carb eggnog here. If you're wondering what it tastes like, it's interesting. Baxter you got to get up bud. You got to get up. It's time to decorate. Are they really trying to keep kids out of a 24-hour manual timer? Okay ready? Yep. Yeah! That's pretty good. It's really vibrant. Yeah love it. While putting up a bunch of decorations that only last a month is fun and all, it was time to get back to the never-ending editing grind like Sisyphus pushing a boulder of s*** uphill ass first dung beetle style. That's all I've been doing for like three days. I don't really have a lot to say. Pretty much just been working. Tree's looking good. Baxter's been good. Monica's been good. She's away on business at the moment. I feel like I'm delirious. The only time I left my apartment was to go shoot another video. I don't know yet when I'll be going up to the bay. Obviously I need to get some of that gooey butter cake that my mom makes. Sorry, gooey butt cake. I was originally thinking the 18th but some scheduling things had to change. Probably head up like the 22nd or 23rd. Today is December 9th. Still got a lot to do. With Christmas fast approaching and myself achieving the record for most screen time in a week at infinity billion, I decided a break was in order. Okay, so here's the thing. I need to teach my mom and my brother a valuable lesson. It is my job as the eldest son to do so. They decided not to tell me what they want for Christmas and instead said, hey, it would be fun if it was a surprise. Which I guess is true. I can see how that would be fun. This is a disaster. The problem is it forces me to think about what I should get them for Christmas and it forces me to think about somebody other than myself for once. Therein lies the problem because I have the cognitive ability of a hamster. So in order to teach them a lesson, I must punish them. So here is package number one that my brother is getting. Emphasis on package. It's a calendar called Hot Cops. Yeah, and my mom's gift is also a calendar. She's gonna hate this. I'm setting myself up for success by doing this because if they truly hate their gifts next year, they'll just make it easy and tell me what they want. I'm a bad son. I need a tape. Gaff tape. I guess that's Christmassy. At least it won't tear anything, I don't think. Oh, f**k. Well, gaff tape definitely rips wrapping paper. To mom from your favorite son. Let's check out Monica's gifts. What the f**k did I do with it? It's a salmon mask. I think she'll enjoy it. Oh man, it smells like paint thinner in here. You can't even see through this thing. I also got this in. It's a little special print. Something I shot in New York. My friend Maddie, enemy of the channel, has been bothering me for it for a while. To Maddie. Well, here you go. Back to editing, I guess, once my eyes stop bleeding. At least I was getting somewhere on these projects. You guys want to see something cool? In case you're wondering, this is the Livewire Alpinista S2, I believe. A fully electric motorcycle. And no, it's not sentient. And no, I also don't get to keep it. What an interesting bike. It makes like no noise. Battery's at 100% right now. Let's go. Holy s**t. Anyway, doing a quick run to the post office. Dropping off some film. Some Portra 800 pushed one stop. Apparently this thing can do 0-60 in 3 seconds. And I believe it. I mean, it's got some giddy up for sure. I think this bike even has a reverse function. I'm not going to find out right now. Okay, I got it straight away here. This is a media bike, so I don't get to keep it, obviously. Where's the kickstand? There it is. The trippiest thing with this bike is when you turn it off, it kind of like sets down, sort of. I don't know how to describe it, really. It's like the front kind of like sets down and it feels like you're dropping the bike. So that's what sun feels like. Hot girls hit curbs. That's a hell of a bumper sticker. Now if I roll the throttle forward, it should reverse. Oh my god. That's crazy. Oh yeah. Yeah, there's still ice in here. So much ice everywhere. This is like Antarctica in here. I knew at Monaco's back in town and we had social requirements that would finally give me a reprieve from the horrors of editing as I was starting to understand the madness of Colonel Kurtz a little too well. We had a friend's birthday downtown, so Monica and I hopped on the Rebel and followed my buddy Tim through the, you know, frigid 70 degree LA night. From a distance with the blanket, it looks like you have like a raccoon strung up back there. Listen up, mother****er. I'm tired of all the rumors swirling around about me right now. He's not actually going to take any photos for Ektachrome Christmas. It's just going to be some lame ass video. Well, I got some news for you. I just finished my goddamn Lomo MCA video. That's not a bottle of piss, by the way. And now I'm here in my dungeon with my plants successfully killed over there. And I was thinking, you know what? It's time to like maybe shoot something and produce some actual content for this video. I'm going to be shooting some 8x10 electronic output Ektachrome. But here's the thing. I couldn't find any information online about what this **** looks like, I guess. So I think I need to throw a test sheet in the 8x10 to see, A, what the white balance on this thing looks like. I'm thinking it'll be kind of purple, but also kind of warm. And then two, also if this like film even renders anything. It's expired slide film. So you never really know. After some further digging, I found out that electronic output Ektachrome was sort of the product of a brief overlap in technology. It was used for transferring digital images on screens to slide film to create sort of like an analog PowerPoint before PowerPoint existed. Although I imagine creating 8x10 slides for a PowerPoint is financially exhaustive. I'm still glad it's here because it allows film perverts like me to shoot it 30 years later. An outdated listing on B&H says this film was balanced for Xenon Arc and CRT monitors. A quick Google search to find out what color temp those are and AI told me it could be anywhere from 6500 Kelvin to 9300 Kelvin. So that's ****. Thanks AI. I suppose my tire pressure could be anywhere from 25 to 3000 PSI as well. Doesn't matter. I guess we can just assume it's a slightly warmer Ektachrome overall. If we assume it's a 6500 Kelvin because that's what was considered the default in America. And well, we did get to the moon first. Yes, my chair is kind of overall just destroyed from just thousands of **** hours. Okay, so I'm thinking a photo like right here. Throw the ultra wide angle on. In about an hour or so, the light is going to come pouring through this door and just kind of bounce around the living room. I guess it'll be a good test of can this stock handle daylight? What does it look like in daylight? I guess it's a test photo. Who gives a ****? Intrepid 8 by 10. Oh man, I put this on backwards. **** I mean, I guess that's a composition by the definition of the word. Just a test photo, Jason. This has no artistic merit on your portfolio. Eight seconds. We're at F22. One Mississippi, eight Mississippi. There's one sheet E100. All right, now that that's locked in, I guess I gotta go run it down to the icon. If only I had the perfect vehicle to do such a thing. There's a Warner Brothers. I mean, Netflix. This is how I know what movies are coming out this month. Every time I come through this intersection here in Hollywood, Wicked, Greenland 2, Spongebob movie. I don't think I'll see any of them. Oh ****, I can't turn here. Well, what the ****? Finally, an actual plot line in this video. Time waiting for a questionable role or a sheet of film to be developed can sometimes be nerve-wracking, right? It's like sending a risky text that could go great or **** everything up. That in-between time and limbo is some kind of torture that needs to be studied. You guys want to know something crazy? I have produced 12 hours and 45 minutes of content this year. That's over an hour of content a month. That's the most I've ever done. And it nearly killed me. I'm not really anticipating those kind of numbers next year. While I was patiently waiting for the notification that my test sheet of electronic output Ektachrome was done, we killed some time by heading out on the Alpinista to our local dive bar in town, Stinky's, where the beer is always watered down. Comfortable? There's no exhaust on this. Nice one, guy. Good. Anyway, we made it home from Stinky's and the next day I had to return to Lomo MCA and go pick up my test sheet from the Icon. Finally, I didn't open it up and look at it beforehand because I guess I figured it'd make better clickbait content if the sheet was so **** up that I cried on camera instead of in front of the employees. OK, so I went to the Icon and picked up my electronic output Ektachrome and I haven't this actually, isn't it? I haven't seen it yet. If it sucks, then no 8x10. But if good, then yes, 8x10. Shut the **** up. All right. Well, there's an image. Smells weird. It just looks like regular Ektachrome. What the hell? So here's what that test sheet looked like. Digitized with a little white balance. Like I said, couldn't really tell you the big difference between this and regular Ektachrome. Perhaps it's just an illusion hiding something that it isn't. Like that little carrot they draw on top of carrot cake. We all know that that **** isn't any healthier than regular cake. And perhaps photographers from the day knew electronic output Ektachrome was really no different than regular Ektachrome. Maybe just a bit purplier overall, but it's unclear if that's because of the expiration. It also says online the stock is not meant for traditional photography. So guess what we're going to do with it? I'd have to wait a bit, though, as a **** storm of piss was heading our way in California. And if you thought traffic out here was bad when it wasn't raining, take a look at Google Maps on a wet day. **** so red it makes herpes look like a light cold. Well, I just got a bunch of empty canisters in the mail today, and I have this 100 foot roll of E100 that I need to slam into them. So it's bulking up time. I'm not going to tell you where I got 100 feet of Ektachrome from, because apparently we need to run a prohibition era underground bootlegging operation to bulk roll nowadays. For the impending rain apocalypse hits, as I heard it described to me numerous times, I wanted to sneak in a quick shot of something on electronic E100. So I grabbed my 8x10 ****, my dog, and Monica to force them to watch me so they can finally understand how backbreaking large format is. There's this Christmas tree decoration that gets lit up in the hills every year overlooking LA, though it's mostly a place for teenagers to, you know, do drugs and make out or whatever. I wanted to see if I could nab a shot of it at sunset to get something atmospheric. Helicopters scouring overhead looking for the infamous escaped night pisser last seen in the area. We started to wonder if the lights would even turn on at all while the light was good. I threw the 300mm on the Intrepid and got it all set up just in case. Right as we were about to give up, because giving up and going home is far far easier than shooting 8x10, they finally turned on against a nice backdrop of warm light clouds. 8 seconds. 2 seconds. 1 second. As I was about to fire the shot, Monica made a poignant observation that the crescent moon was just over the horizon out of frame. With a quick reframe, I could have it in the shot, so I made a game time decision and shifted the composition at the last second. I did close the shutter, right? I really hope. Okay, thank god. 1 Mississippi. 4 Mississippi. If that photo turns out, it'll be a Christmas miracle. Well, this ain't so bad. I do feel like I got a little lazy with it though. There's also some texture all over the sheet, likely from, you know, almost 25 years of expiration. I think it's called bromide drag. Otherwise, the photo, you know, it's pleasant. Not really a photo I'd probably ever put in a book or portfolio, but at least it's not burned half-dry crisp like that cursed test sheet. I think I metered and put neutral gray right here and then added one stop of light on top of that. And yeah, over here's the moon, I guess, technically, though it looks more like dust on the scan. If I moved the camera to the left and rotated toward the moon, this shot probably would have worked a lot better. But before I shoot more electronic output exochrome in the gripping, epic finale of this video, I'd like to first thank today's sponsor, Squarespace, for their ongoing support of this channel. Chances are you've heard of the industry-leading Squarespace before, but did you know that the team behind the website building powerhouse recently implemented a bunch of tools that utilize groundbreaking AI to custom build the website that'll take your personal enterprises to the next level? 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And with invoice support to keep things on track, you can start the flow of economy back to you. So what are you waiting for? If you're ready to build a website, you can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainydays. And if you use the code grainydays at checkout, you can get 10% off your first purchase. That evening we ate a bunch of junk food and opened our presents for each other. Fortunately, Monica didn't break up with me for getting her a salmon mask as a gift. In fact, she liked it the most out of all the other gifts that I put a whole hell of a lot more time, money and effort into. After that I put on the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack and we played Monica's new Stardew Valley board game, which was an odd combination. We out here mixing together new vibes you've never even heard of before. Three hours of temptation later because some of the pieces look like slices of ham. We finished the game and I packed up to head north. All right, what's up? I got a mysterious package from Herschel Supply Co. Everybody's favorite backpack company. Oh wow. I'm not going to lie right now. I actually really needed one. Perfect timing because I'm going up to the bay. They really kidded me out. No email, no DM. They just cold sent it, I guess. It's got that new bag smell. Just dropped Monica off at the airport. She's heading home. I got to pack up the car today and get my ass up to northern California, finally. Crazy three weeks. And today is also crazy. Sorry if you can hear hammering in the background. They decided to start hammering as soon as I hit record, which happens a lot around here. So all that needs to go into the car. I got my large format stuff, which is good. The green case is a story for another time. It's finally time to let the days on end of editing go and head up to northern California to see my mom and brother. As per usual, Baxter just couldn't care less to be honest. Although for him, home is wherever his beloved purple bed is. Breaking now at six, we are in storm watch as a major winter storm bears down on southern California. Tonight, tens of millions of people living in northern California and the Pacific Northwest are bracing for a blast of what's called a bomb cyclone. It's a supercharged storm powering up in the Pacific and closing in on the coast. It's expected to deliver a river of rain to the region, causing flash flooding, mudslides, and even evacuations. Baxter certainly made himself at home while it absolutely dumped rain the next few days. Not very good for 8x10 large format as the camera tends to get picked up pretty easily, becoming a sail whenever it's windy. And well, we didn't really need another spy balloon situation. In between gaps in the rain, I'd take Baxter outside and, you know, get down on my hands and knees and just plead him to take a sh** before it starts raining again. Which of course he wouldn't do. He just enjoys having the power over me for once. When it's pouring rain for days on end like this, what else is there really to do other than, I guess, lock in and get some more hard work done. On Christmas Eve, my mom started making her famous gooey butter cake like usual. One bite of it will kill you. The second bite will bring you back to life. A delicacy from a far off land, the Midwest. And of course, Baxter is playing his own game, waiting for something, anything really, to fall on the floor. Baxter, dog bed. As per tradition, that night we ate some good food and got messed up on locally sourced glue wine, fireball, and chicken milk. Which definitely eased hostile tensions between me and my brother for the holiday season, temporarily. I'm gonna kick your ass. Anyway, in an effort to keep the buzz going, because you never get hungover if you never stop drinking. We had some fireball, and coffee, and gooey butt cake. Death would surely be knocking at my door soon. The following days, and I didn't get up to much. I think I understand why animals hibernate now. It was the perfect excuse to be a lazy sack of s*** inside for a while. And of course, occasionally beg Baxter to go outside and drop a fresh garden loaf. We were now in that magical in-between time. You know, Christmas is over and we're all just waiting for New Year's, but we don't actually know what day of the week it currently is. Some people call it the taint of the year. It's like being stuck in a waiting room. And with the steady downpour of rain outside, it was easy to feel like time was trapped in no man's land. But eventually, a window would appear. Now 40 pounds overweight from a consistent diet of holiday slop, and no exercise whatsoever. Unless of course, you count the calories burned by lifting fork to mouth. I prepared for good weather and loaded up some sheets of electronic output ectofoam in my 8x10 holders. I decided to head up the coastline and see what I could find. And in a bout of good timing, my buddy David was in town to tag along. Sunlight. Finally got some. Oh, hell yeah. This is the shot. No wind today either. We got really lucky. See how lucky I feel when I get the 8x10 sheet back. Anyway, perched dangerously on the side of a cliff, because it ain't 8x10 if you aren't sweating a little. I got to work putting together a comp that maybe could work. I was a little unsure about it. Oh my god, that's beautiful. I don't know, man. I kind of like that. Turns out I was right to be unsure. This photo is whatever. Compositionally, it's good, but there's no color. The water down here doesn't even pop really like it did in reality. Oh well, maybe I'll go back one day to try again. With some measure of success already under my belt, I guess that's a bit of a stretch though. We headed even further upstream to a lighthouse, hoping the sunset colors would deliver wonderful bangers onto our sweet, sweet emulsion. After setting up the 8x10 next to a couple, having a sunset picnic and totally ruining the romantic vibe, I dialed in the exposure so as to get some motion blur in the waves, but still maintain the effect of the polarizer and sharpness throughout. Yeah, it's underexposed. I could have killed two birds with one stone if I held the shutter open for another stop. To not only get more light, but also more motion blur in the water. Whatever. The lighthouse stands out nicely, and I guess that's the subject of the comp, so I'm still content enough with it. The shadows on this film stock go wildly saturated blue. Maybe that's what Kodak meant when they said that this film stock's not meant for traditional photography. I'm a bit uncertain if that's an effect of expiration or by design, but in order to neutralize them, I leaned these shots a lot warmer in post and added some yellow green to the shadows. Anyway, with the light just about gone for the day and ready to clock out, we spotted a cool shot on our way back to the car. The last of the orange sunset light cast onto the window of a shed. It would be perfect if I could scramble in time to get my 8x10 set up and somehow manage to not f*** up any of the 10,000 steps you need to do to shoot 8x10 film. Did I pull it off? The I quite like it, aside from some textural deformity from expiration. It turned out how I imagined it would, which is kind of rare in my work, much less my work with expired film. This might be one of the best, if not the best, 8x10 sheets I've ever shot, and it was also probably the fastest set up I've ever shot. So basically all that that tells me is that I spend too much time overthinking when I do large format. Anyway, that was a wrap for the day. We hopped in the car and peaced out, satisfied with what we got, but I was questioning electronic output ektachrome. I'm unsure if I'll keep shooting it. It comes out quite purple, which obviously requires a decent amount of post-correction to kind of nullify it, which isn't ideal. There's also that noticeable amount of gunky texture on the emulsion, creating an interesting warpy, water-stained look on some shots. I guess it's not too bad. And regular 8x10 ektachrome is pretty f***ing expensive, so maybe I should just shut up and deal with it. But anyways, en route to a nearby restaurant, a side quest appeared before us. There was this dog in the middle of the road that looked pretty lost, so we doubled back and brought her to the motel where she lives, I guess. Beer o'clock would have to wait. With that task completed and no objectives unlocked, we moved on down the road and found the only local spot still open that evening. When do you think the last time this elevator has been in service? So it turns out that weather window was exactly what it promised to be, and the rain was back literally the next day with no hesitation. Luckily, Monica had arrived back in town, and we finally had enough people to ruthlessly betray each other in Space Catan, which Monica won like 9 out of 10 times. I guess my usual strategy of chaos, anarchy, deceptive loyalty, and collusion with pirates didn't really bode well long-term. But eventually it was New Year's Eve, and we got out of the house for a bit to go to a party with some people that we don't really like. This is my final video recording. If I am found in a couple of days butt-ass naked in a sewer somewhere... What do you mean if? It's because I went to my friend Matt and Maddie's New Year's Eve party. You'll be lucky if that's how they find you. Anyway, after waking up the next morning unsure if I spent the night drinking or getting f***ed by an orangutan, I headed back to my mom's house where our son was delighted to see us because it meant more people around to feed him in case someone forgot. I don't know who raised him to be like this. More or less the end of our time in the North. Though it might not really seem like it, we had responsibilities to get back to, even though our biggest responsibility was busy ripping ass in the back of the car on the ride home. Hola. I'm very blue. I look like an avatar. I didn't go see the new movie. A lot of people are calling it Avatar Fire and Ass. Just got home and it seems that our apartment has developed a bit of a leak. It's not actually a new development. It's been like this for 10 years and they say that they fixed it every year. They spend two days patching our ceiling and then 10 months later it rains again and you know there's a waterfall in our living room. The craziest part is that we're on the second story of three. Top unit doesn't have a leak. Bottom unit doesn't have leak. I don't really understand it. Christmas break was good. Got a lot of good stuff. My mom gave me a candle that says light me when you need a break from editing. The ceiling leak sucks but I think we're just gonna ignore it. We are moving in a couple of months so it won't be a problem forever and it'll be the next tenant's problem. Kind of a bummer to come home to though. Not gonna lie. I feel like I can do a better job of not ending this video on such a bummer note. You know what I mean?